Snapdragon 845 vs A11 Bionic Chip – Based on Rumored Specifications

Before we compare the Snapdragon 845 vs A11 Bionic chip, let us clarify one thing. We have very little confirmed information about its specs of SD 845 since the SOC is still in development. It is expected to be released next year. There are also unconfirmed reports that Qualcomm is preparing not one, but two or more of its flagship offering.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC is typically unearthed only on flagship smartphones of 2017. Snapdragon 835 is already an amazingly quick chipset, while first samples of SD435 are already with OEMs for testing. Snapdragon has begun working on its successor, the Snapdragon 845 well in advance. Even though nothing is official yet, but still according to the rumored specs that we have got through various sources, we will find out what to expect from the SD845, due to be released next year.

Snapdragon 845 vs A11 Bionic

Let’s talk about the A11 bionic chip first. The A11 integrates an Apple-designed 3-core graphics GPU with 30% faster graphics performance over its predecessor, the A10. The A11 also includes a new image processor which supports lightning portrait processing via the camera app Adding to that is improving the color capture and advanced pixel processing. It also consists of a neural network hardware “also known as Neural Engine” which can perform up to 600 billion operations per second. It is used for hardware-assisted Face ID, Animoji, and other machine learning tasks.

The Neural Engine features cognitive functions like face recognition, biometrics, speech recognition and language translations. The A11 chip assists the highly advertised Face ID, Animoji, and other unsupervised machine learning tasks. The A11 is fabricated by TSMC using a 10 nm FinFET process and comprises of 4.3 billion transistors, while the Snapdragon 835 had 3 billion transistors but built using the same 10 nm FinFET process. We expect the Snapdragon 845 to match that or even better.

Apple is utilizing its groundbreaking A11 Bionic chip in the recently launched iPhone 8, the iPhone 8 Plus and the iPhone X smartphones. The A11 features an Apple-designed 64-bit ARMv8-A six-core 64 bit CPU. It has two high-performance cores, called Monsoon, and four energy-efficient cores called Mistra. The A11 uses a new second generation performance controller, that helps this chip to use all the six cores simultaneously, unlike its predecessor A10 found in iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. It gives the A11 chip a substantial single-threaded performance advantage over its predecessors.

When we talk about our expectations, the Snapdragon 845 should be better than the Snapdragon 835. But the question is whether Snapdragon 845 is worth waiting or not? So let’s start the comparison of Snapdragon 835 vs Snapdragon 845.

Snapdragon 835 is currently built on a similar 10nm FinFET lithography process, and it was a significant design optimization for Qualcomm, primarily since the SD820 was known to generate excessive heat under full load. Even the 820 was far better optimized over the 810 regarding power consumption. With Snapdragon 835, Qualcomm claimed for 27% higher performance and 40% low power consumption than the 14nm or 16nm lithography process.

With the Snapdragon 845, the performance is expected to set a new record, with much lower power envelopes (p-states) and much more. TSMC tipped to have begun testing on a 7nm process back in April. So, it is expected that the Snapdragon 845 will come with 7 nm FinFET process and will be first of its kind for a mobile chip.

Qualcomm only designs the chips and doesn’t fabricate it themselves. It is believed that both Samsung and Taiwan’s TSMC are going to manufacture them in their fabs. It is even expected that the Samsung next year flagship phone, Galaxy S9 will be powered by the Snapdragon 845. Rumours are also set that the LG G7 will also feature Snapdragon845 SoC.

Here is a quick summary of specifications, see table:

Snapdragon 845 vs 835 vs A11 Bionic

SoC

SD 845 (Rumoured)

SD 835

A11 Bionic Chip

CPU Architecture

64-bit

64-bit

64-bit ARMv8

CPU Cores

Octa Core (Unconfirmed)

4x 2.45GHz Kryo 280
4x 1.9GHz Kryo 280

X20 LTE modem

Octa Core CPU

4x 2.45GHz Kryo 280
4x 1.9GHz Kryo 280

X16 LTE modem

Hexa-core (2× Monsoon + 4× Mistral) Max up to 2.34 GHz

GPU

Adreno 640

Adreno 540

Apple designed custom 3 core(s) GPU

RAM

Up to 8 GB dual-channel LPDDR4x

Up to 8 GB dual-channel LPDDR4x

3 GB of LPDDR4

Manufacturing Technology

7 nm FinFET

10 nm FinFET

10 nm FinFET

Camera

Dual rear camera 12 MP, 7 MP front camera

12 MP rear camera and 7 MP front camera

Dual rear camera 12 MP, 7 MP front camera

Conclusion

Snapdragon 845 will be an amazingly fast chipset. It will allow manufacturers to squeeze a significant number of sensors and other hardware onto a smaller die. We don’t know anything more about the Snapdragon 845 at this moment. As on when something comes up, we will update this post.

We hope you like our article on Snapdragon 845 vs A11 Bionic. Suggestions and questions are welcome in the comment section down below. Cheers!

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